Affiliate Income is Most Stable

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As an Internet marketer or publisher, you should have many streams of income on your sites to diversify earnings and reach maximum potential for monetary gain. There’s contextual ads, there’s direct sales of products, services, and advertisements, there’s sales of links and reviews, and then there’s affiliate marketing income. All of these are viable methods for making money online. However, affiliate income is the most efficient and most stable in the long run. We’ll go into why below.

What is affiliate marketing?

First of all, what exactly is affiliate marketing? Wikipedia defines it as a method for promoting web businesses (merchants/advertisers) in which an affiliate (publisher) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts. As much as I hate Wikipedia for dominating search engine results for almost all keywords, I think this is a great comprehensive definition. Basically, a company pays commission to independent marketers who help the company reach a desired goal. In many cases this is a sale or a lead of some sort.

Why affiliate marketing is most stable

Unlike some other forms of Internet income, affiliate marketing is a direct cause of a sale or lead that generates income for a company. For example, if you are an affiliate of an electronics company and refer a customer who buys a product, the company already has that money on hand to pay you your predefined cut. This is a low-risk strategy and if the affiliate program is set up correctly the company is guaranteed to make a profit from affiliates. Affiliates are essentially being paid a referral commission.

On the other hand, other forms of Internet revenue are not so secure. For example, consider a brand new marketing startup that invests an initial sum of money for advertising costs. Your site may be targeted for the campaign and you may receive advertising income. However, who’s to say that the startup will still be around with the same advertising budget 6 months from now? If your website’s business model focuses on contextual ads, then you are at the mercy of the success of other companies. Unlike affiliate marketing, advertising income gives you no control over the revenue of the company you are working with.

Furthermore, affiliate marketing gives you leverage. By being a top affiliate for a company, you become indispensable and are able to command higher rates. In the end, both you the affiliate and the company win. Advertising income does not work the same way. Just because a company is purchasing advertising on your site does not mean that you are helping them in any way. In fact, if your site fails to provide a profitable ROI, the company will cut you off and leave you in the dust.

How can I use affiliate marketing?

Sign up for affiliate programs related to your niche and integrate its products and services into your content. Run a site dedicated to rock music? Write some reviews of the top rock albums and include affiliate links for your readers to purchase. If you haven’t been using this strategy, now is the time to get into the game of affiliate marketing. Some of the top affiliate networks include Commission Junction and Azoogle Ads. How are you using affiliate marketing as a stable long term business strategy?